Chapter 103: The Breath of the Book Volume
Zhao Di made another purchase in the market of Penglai Fairy Island, adding some auxiliary materials for alchemy and two or three yellow heaven thick earth talismans.
This talisman, touted as having the strongest defensive power during the foundation-building period, was sold for 300 spirit stones per piece, and even Zhao Di didn't dare to buy many.
As for the elixirs suitable for Ice Wind Snake, there are only Yu Ling San and higher-level Pei Ling Wan, Zhao Di also bought a large batch.
There is also a storage bag, because considering the need to hunt and kill a large number of demon beasts, there will inevitably be a lot of demon beast materials. The space in his storage bag has been filled with dozens of puppets, it seems that he needs to replace it with a larger capacity storage bag.
Unfortunately, he wasn't a Condensation Period cultivator, otherwise he could have used the Storage Ring, a more advanced storage artifact. Not only was it much more convenient, but its storage capacity was also astonishingly large. There were even rumors of a secret technique that allowed one to bind their Storage Ring to themselves, making it impossible for anyone else to retrieve items from it unless they had the owner's divine sense. If someone tried to force open or destroy the ring, everything inside would be destroyed along with it.
Zhao Di spent over a thousand spirit stones in an enormous magic tool shop, purchasing two super-large capacity storage bags, which solved the problem of where to put these items.
He was about to leave Fang City and head to the Grand Temple on the mountain top, but was stopped by a young man dressed as a scholar.
"This Daoist friend, please forgive my impertinence. I perceive that you are practicing a Daoist skill, but I sense a hint of Confucian learning emanating from your person. If you were to cultivate the skills of the Confucian school, it would surely be twice as effective! I wish to engage in a discussion with you over wine and verify our understanding together. Would you be willing to accept my invitation?" The young man bowed deeply, his hands clasped together in respect.
Zhao Di saw that this person's spirit was shining brightly, and he was actually a cultivator in the later stage of foundation building. He didn't dare to be rude, so he also made a fist and bowed, saying: "I still have urgent matters to attend to, please forgive me for not being able to accept your invitation, fellow Daoist!" As for what the other person said about "the breath of books", he was even more unclear!
The young man was taken aback, then smiled and said: "In that case, my surname is Shu Ming, and my name is Jiang Nan. If you're free one day, feel free to come find me at Wen Han Zong."
"Absolutely!" Zhao Di also said with a smile. He didn't have any good feelings towards this hypocritical Confucian scholar, but in the face of his opponent's late-stage foundation-building cultivation, he didn't dare to be arrogant either.
After leaving this person, he flew to the top of Yuntai Mountain and came to the fifth island of a foreign star through the transmission array of the Fifth Grand Hall.
Zhao Di chose Island No. 5 for no other reason than these few reasons.
He was most familiar with the sea conditions around Wuhu Island, where there were more reefs, where there were fewer, where there were more islands that could be used as a foothold, and where it was a vast expanse of ocean without an island in sight.
Two, the demon beasts on Island Five were also most suitable for him. Mainly fourth-grade demon beasts, with some third and fifth-grade ones as well. The inner elixirs of these demon beasts, namely the several types of pills refined from third to fifth-grade demon cores, were extremely suitable for Zhao Di to consume during his foundation-building period. Fifth-grade demon beasts on Island Four were extremely rare, while Island Six had many sixth-grade demon beasts appearing, making it too dangerous. Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, he still chose Island Five.
Thirdly, he still held a glimmer of hope about the whereabouts of Xi Feng and several others. When he chose to escape alone initially, although it couldn't be considered a mistake, it was also abandoning others without regard, and it was inevitable that there would be some regret. If he came to Wuhou Island, perhaps he had a thread of hope, to meet up with Xi Feng and the others again, or to gather some news.
The Immortal Realm is full of evil and unpredictable, it's hard to measure people's hearts. Since leaving the Jian family, Zhao Di hasn't made or dared to make a close friend, silently cultivating alone. Although he has been secretly wary of Xi Feng, Di Er, and the others, they seem to have noticed this but don't mind at all, instead showing him great respect. The bond between these four is even stronger than brotherly love, which moves him deeply. Over three years of interaction, he has unconsciously come to regard them as his friends. Therefore, if any of them are still alive, he will be overjoyed.
After arriving at Wuhou Island, Zhao Di bought some jade slips that recorded the situation of the demon beasts and found that in the past two years, the density of the demon beasts seemed to have not increased. It seems that either the information in these jade slips is updated too slowly or the arrival of the beast tide still needs a period of time.
He made some discreet inquiries on the island, but still didn't get any news about Xi Feng and others, so he left Wuhao Island and flew straight north.
This flight is half a year!
In the first few days, he would meet several monks every day. Some even greeted him and tried to stop him. But he simply ignored them, turned his Wind Chaser around and flew away. These people didn't know whether they wanted to recruit him to join forces to hunt down monsters or had other intentions, wanting to kill him and steal his treasure. Anyway, Zhao Di was not interested in getting entangled with them.
After flying for a month or so, it was very difficult to see other cultivators. It was often only ten days or half a month before seeing one or a team of cultivators. These people were completely uninterested in Zhao and were instead focused on searching for demonic beasts.
The monks who dare to fly into the sea area so deep, which one is not carrying secret skills! Although Zhao Di looks like a foundation-building beginner monk, since he dares to enter deeply here, he must also have two brushes, and there is no grasp of the situation, it's unnecessary to provoke trouble. Moreover, this foundation-building initial cultivation may be disguised, high-ranking monks in front of low-ranking cultivators can hide their own cultivation at will!
After two consecutive months without seeing other monks, Zhao Di finally stopped, at which point he had been flying for half a year.
In the past six months, apart from occasionally using the Ling Stone to meditate and recover his spiritual energy on a deserted island, he had been flying in the high skies. The distance he flew was so far that it was likely tens of millions of miles. Along the way, he did see several demonic beasts, but they all hastily passed by, without hearing or asking anything!
Because his method of hunting demons was too astonishing, he didn't want to be peeped by other cultivators during this process. This is also why he flew to such a remote place.
Zhao chose a small island in the Fangyuan Sea as his first stop for solo demon hunting.
He first flew around the island for several days, and after confirming that there were no other monks present, he arranged more than a dozen colorful arrays one by one on this island.
In the very center of it all was the Tian Xiang Huan Qing formation, which had been obtained from Yun Meng Lian and required a full twelve high-grade spirit stones to set up.
On this day, Xiang Huan set up the Tian Gai Two Extremes Formation, the Tian Lei Di Huo Formation, the Jin Guang Wan Dao Formation, and the Lie Shan Li Tu Formation around the Xiang Huan Qing Yuan Formation. These formations were all quite powerful in terms of offense and defense, and they surrounded the small island like a watertight seal. This was equivalent to setting up a heavenly net.
Zhao Di himself set up a hidden array within the Tian Xiang Huan Qing Array. He hid inside the array, put on that mysterious semi-transparent cloak, and then pointed his hand at the magic disk, unleashing the power of the Tian Xiang Huan Qing Array.
Next, he just needs to wait quietly for the demon beast to fall into his trap.
He took out a classic about alchemy, immersed part of his divine consciousness in it, and slowly comprehended the contents of the jade slip.
An hour later, he took out a small furnace the size of a ruler, summoned the true yuan in his dantian, and spat out a blue flame from his mouth, wrapping the furnace around. This is the innate true fire that only foundation-building cultivators have, which can be used to refine pills and artifacts above the foundation-building stage. Because it is a flame triggered by the cultivator's own true yuan, its stability surpasses that of earth fire by several points, making it even more advantageous in refining pills and equipment!
It is only when using innate true fire that it consumes a lot of spiritual power, and the refining of instruments and elixirs often requires a relatively long period of time, so Zhao Di rarely uses it.
According to the jade slip given by Yun Mengli, it would take two or three days for the Tianxiang Huanqing Formation's power to cover an area of hundreds of miles. He took advantage of this time to focus on studying the art of alchemy.
Zhoa Di added a dozen or so spiritual herbs and auxiliary materials to the alchemy furnace one after another. Now he is refining the most ordinary Gathering Qi Pill, which only requires several spiritual herbs that are over ten years old, plus some cheap and common auxiliary materials to refine. Moreover, the refining method has been mastered, and it can be easily bought in a classic bookstore.
